2-832-437 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Loveseat with late Baroque style carved wooden frame and red velvet upholstry. The loveseat has curved front legs with trifid feet and splayed back legs. The high sides have rounded front rails with carved shells at the corners and a scalloped top rail that reaches upward toward the scalloped crest rail of the seat back. The center back of the crest rail has a carved design of feathered vines along the top edge on either side of a large shell. Carved wooden panels at the interior corners where the sides meet the back have a feather vine with a shell at the top. The seat and sides, including the reverse, are upholstered in red velvet. The upholstry covers the front seat rail to approximately one inch above the scalloped wooden edge. Mae Reeves (1912-2016) was a pioneering African-American milliner who was famous for her custom-made hats. Her business, Mae's Millinery Shop in downtown Philadelphia, was one of the first shops in the city to be owned by a woman of African American heritage.